The United States has shifted its Russia strategy more towards offense and inserted potentially crippling malware inside Russia's electric power grid at a depth and with an aggressiveness that had never been tried before, according to a New York Times's story that broke over the weekend. "It is intended partly as a warning, and partly to be poised to conduct cyberstrikes if a major conflict broke out between Washington and Moscow."

— Trump not briefed: Article also indicates that Mr. Trump had not been briefed about the details of the operation inside the Russian grid due to concern over his reaction and possibility of him discussing it with foreign officials. Trump has dismissed the allegations in the report, calling them "fake news."

— A hypothetical possibility: In reaction to the report, the Russian news agency, TASS, released a story on Monday quoting Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stating: "the United States' cyberwar against Russia is a hypothetical possibility." Pointing at Trump's dismissal of the report, Peskov added: "If one assumes that some government agencies do this without informing the head of state, then, of course, this may indicate that cyberwar against Russia might be a hypothetical possibility."

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